Getting abused

The beatings Hernandez's father gave him and his brother were sometimes for no reason at all or were alcohol-related, but often came when their father believed they were not trying hard enough in school or athletics. D.J. and Hernandez lived in constant fear of their father but also revered him. Hernandez once came to school with a black eye that his coach believed resulted from his father hitting him. His father once punched Hernandez's youth football coach after a dispute about coaching methods. According to Hernandez's brother D.J., Hernandez was also sexually molested as a child. A teenage boy in his babysitter's house forced Hernandez to perform oral sex on him beginning when Hernandez was six years old and continuing for several years. A college girlfriend said that "he never dealt with the sexual abuse. It led to issues in his sexuality."